Estimates of Oil Entering the Marine Environment in the Past Decade: Gesamp Working Group 32 Project

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Protection (GESAMP) Working Group on Estimates of Oil Entering the Marine Environment: Sea Based Activities (Working Group 32), began meeting at International Maritime Organization (IMO) headquarters in London in November 1997 to discuss a new approach to evaluating all available data sources on the input of oil into the marine environment from sea-based activities. The group will collect and analyze data on oil inputs over the last decade from shipping (tankers and other vessels), offshore and coastal exploration and production, pipelines, atmospheric emissions from sea-based activities, coastal refineries and storage facilities, oil reception facilities, materials disposed of at sea, and natural seepage. The group, sponsored by the United Nations (UN), IMO, UN Environment Program, Food and Agriculture Organization, UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, World Health Organization, World Meteorological Organization, and International Atomic Energy Agency, will compare its oil input estimate model to estimates made by GESAMP in previous decades to determine if there have been significant reductions in oil input in order to evaluate the efficacy of IMO conventions and other pollution reduction efforts in the past decade. The group will consider the amounts of oil entering the sea through operational and accidental spillage in relation to the quantities of oil transported by ship and through pipelines, and in relation to offshore and coastal oil production. The group will also consider temporal and spatial variability in oil inputs, as well as evaluate the accuracy of input estimates. These results will be presented in the poster presentation